Varcoe: Smith, Moe welcome PM's confidence that oil pipeline will make Ottawa's major project wish list
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Premier Danielle Smith is welcoming Prime Minister Mark Carney's comment on the weekend that it's 'highly, highly likely' such a project will be put on the fast-track list for approval — and she hopes to have a proposal backed by private-sector proponents in place by this fall.
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And the premier's pipeline concept would be linked with a huge carbon capture network in northern Alberta, proposed by the Pathways Alliance group of oilsands producers, also making the federal list.
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Slowly, but surely, the puzzle pieces of an energy deal are being assembled.
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'I really like the optimism of the prime minister, recognizing how important this project is,' Jean said Monday on the sidelines of the premier's annual Stampede breakfast at McDougall Centre.
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'We've got indications that it's going to cost somewhere around $20 (billion) to $25 billion — that's not a big number, as long as the conditions are right.'
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On Saturday, Carney said it's likely an oil pipeline to the West Coast will make the list of nationally important developments on the major projects list, which is being assembled by the federal government.
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Under the newly passed Bill C-5, the federal government can accelerate necessary approvals for such initiatives.
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'Given the scale of the economic opportunity, the resources we have, the expertise we have, that it is highly, highly likely that we will have an oil pipeline that is a proposal for one of these projects of national interest,' the prime minister said in an interview with the Calgary Herald.
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She's speaking with pipeline proponents about what it would take to get them on board to build such a line, and with oilsands producers about proceeding with their proposed carbon capture project, which has been pegged at $16.5 billion.
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In recent weeks, Alberta's premier has talked about striking a grand bargain that would see federal approval of the Pathways' carbon capture network along with a major oil pipeline to the B.C. coast.
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